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A word of caution to the uninitiated: F-15 shaped openers will only work on bottles of Zima and wine coolers.

It's an easy game: give people some semblance of family life ability and don't waste their time on bullshit taskers, deployments, stuff that has absolutely zero to do with their job, etc. Keep doing that shit and 95% of the "golden children" will keep punching. A few incentives go a long way, but the AF has apparently zero capability to pull its cranium out of its ass and see that.

I think it is because they are tired of getting embarrassed when their Golden Children Selects turn down school and then promptly separate.

Hey guys - quick post to share something I think will be of interest here. I'm a Navy pilot by trade - metal fabricator in my spare time...I've got a small side gig going making custom aviation metal art and novelties and I think you guys will like it. The bottle openers I make are in the shape of your favorite air frame...if it isn't on my site, I'm capable of making it; just ask! Thanks for looking and feel free to hit me up with any requests. www.planeform.com Best, -Flanders

For consideration as well - we make sweet wall art!

Valid point, but we have to have the capability for the high end fight, I don't think to the level we structure our forces now but keeping xxx % in high end capes unlikely to be used but necessary for deterrence and if the SHTF, to win the fight. There's no reason we should have to spend 500k+ per PGM delivered to a target in a permissive air environment, buy the right systems in numbers to make mowing the grass economical but never doubt shit does happen sometimes. Look at 1982 when Argentina invaded the Falklands, 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait, etc... or any other smaller unconventional conflicts that could have escalated further, you get a patron backing a rouge nation, like Russia, and suddenly you find you might need capes you thought you wouldn't in certain AORs, the deployment of Russian S-400s / S-30s in Western Syria being a prime example. They probably won't target or threaten us but what if they do and tell us not to fly in x airspace or else? We have to be able to tell them to pound sand and we'll do what we want, where we want, when we want and that's that. Not advocating warmongering or being a global a-hole but be able to follow thru and let that be common knowledge around the world. Look at the Iranians and their new toys, S-300s from Mother Russia. https://rusi.org/publication/rusi-defence-systems/why-iranian-purchase-s-300-should-worry-gulf-states When the Falklands were invaded, PM Thatcher was meeting with her cabinet, one of them said "if we do nothing, we will wake up in another kind of country." Meaning if people know they can push you around either by you not wanting to fight or not able to fight, they will push you around. Do you think Iran would wait 6.9 seconds if they thought they could close the air / sea in choke points like the Strait of Hormuz if they knew the US could not or would not operate there if we didn't have the capes to prove them wrong?

I was thinking that same thing about the Hawg but you have to make the opener out of titanium.

It's not a way tomorrow that is the problem. It's the war 10-15 years from now. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Tell me about this war 10-15 years from now? I'm not so sure it's a bad thing we can't invade any IAD protected country on earth...but I'll bet in 10-15 years we still could except for China/Russia. From what I've seen our B-2s, F-22s and 69 degraded F-35s could go about anywhere we realistically need. And those are just the jets we can talk about let alone our "other" capes. We seem to think the US needs the ability to go anywhere, anytime and nobody seems to think about our national strategy objectives and why invading China/Russia isn't needed so we plan for 2,000+ (day 1-3 relevant) strike aircraft. So we bankrupt our military while building up for WW3. I'd say there is a very good chance the F-22 and F-35 are barely if ever used for the role they were originally designed.

Our Wg/CC said the "new idea" is to have more candidates go and less selects. Maybe they finally realized selects are bailing at a high rate and they shouldn't put so many of their eggs in the "this guy's going to be a 4 star!" basket. We'll see if it holds true, but sounds like candidates are in better shape than previously.

Really? I was thinking more F-14 & F-15. I was on the Philippine assistance team when they went with FA-50 we had a viper guy for the FW CAS position going over the dash 1. His comments were its so Lockheed/Viper that if he wasn't paying attention it would almost fool him.

True. I just hate that everybody wants to use the most basic two metrics possible of how many aircraft we bought and how long we flew the ones they replaced. It completely ignores all the stuff I mentioned not to forget the increasingly high pace of technological obsolescence in the digital age. Now you take a fleet of 160 raptors, constantly have say 1/3 of that in depot for either service life extensions or modifications to maintain technological edge and you drop to a fleet of 100+ airplanes. Factor in how many of those are available to train and we are talking 1-2 wings of which only half are up at a time as deployable. We go from the worlds most capable and deployable air power force to having a numerical parity to even small nations let alone the big scary ones like China/Russia. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nailed it!

It's not a way tomorrow that is the problem. It's the war 10-15 years from now. How long did we ride the F-16/15 fleet and how many SLEPs and retiring of older portions of the fleet to strip parts off of to do that? How many decades did those assembly lines run and how long ago did they shut off? That's the problem with the we have 169 Raptors argument. Right now we do. Ten years from now how many hours have you burned off those airframes. How many have you planted because let's face it crap happens and sometimes you gotta give the plane back to the taxpayer (even B-2). Now there won't be an F-22C coming online 10 years from now when the ones we have now are worn out and flying on weight/G restrictions to prolong that airframe life some more. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

One of my best buddies had a great quote today: "Getting a 22 year old to join up to fly jets doesn't impress me. Getting a 32 year old to stay impresses me."

You'll see the first Yokota slots doled out to UPT and FAIPs in the next few months. Expect these PIQ pilots to enter JMATS in the December-February timeframe to get to Yokota in Fall of '16 with the first tail. You're leaving out that Dyess has more tails assigned than Little Rock, Little Rock has 3 deployments to 3 different continents right now and the COCOMs are requesting this be increased, Little Rock has multiple tails in ISO due to all of the initial tails showing up at one time, they have several tails at the factory being modified to 6.6 and soon to be 8.1, and just last summer 5 turn 5 existed prior to the current deployment cycle. If you feel you need more Herk skills, Little Rock has participated in JFE, JRTC, and has JOAX on the books. Sign up. If everything is out the door then you have plenty of time to study 3-1 and 3-3 and come up with new methods and means for when the tails return home in the fall. The initiatives at Dyess were generated by Captains and approved by leadership. The same could happen at Little Rock, and there's no better time than now because all leadership is on board. The SQ/CC's, OSS, incoming OG, and new Wing Commander are "push it up, get the planes dirty" tac airlifters. You've got more top cover than ever so if you have ideas and proposals then there's never a better time than now. We like to blame "leadership" for our skills atrophying because few of us are brave enough to look in the mirror and decide we haven't made the most of our own training opportunities. Sign up for JOAX and JRTC this fall and lead a Red Flag Alaska like Little Rock did a few months ago. Don't just print a 280 and do what the guy's did last week, your training is your own. You should never rely on someone else to make you a better pilot. That's intrinsic. Roll up your sleeves and lead the young punks in the mission planning room and set the example of what a true tac airlifter is. Maximize that 3 turn 3 schedule to prevent guys dying on the vine. Don't just waste your time on a canned SKE-VIS-PRO. Don't blame the mythical "leadership", especially now that the current Wing Commander is a Herk guy through and through.

Man.... FA-50 looks creepily like a Viper, this has definite Eagle traits.... Are we really designing anything new or just letting a graphic designer play with it to fool us into buying the same planes at higher prices.

I don't know... The B model is just as capable of making noise as a harrier is.